


Fight or Flight

by PennandQuill



Category: Original Work
Genre: Apocalypse, End of the World, M/M, Survival, Survival Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:00:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26667853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PennandQuill/pseuds/PennandQuill
Summary: The United States are in ruins.Five children are faced with a challenge.Will this become their beginning? Or their end?Only time will tell.





	Fight or Flight

Chapter One: Silence

The soft buzz and flicker of fluorescent lights filled the near silent room, the air so thick you could cut through it like butter. Desks lay overturned and broken, plastic chairs discarded and abandoned, collecting dust in a dark corner. Old whiteboards peeled off the walls in the corners, lined with chips and jagged edges. The television had seemingly been ripped off the wall, leaving a mess of exposed wires in its absence. Books and posters lay trampled and ruined amongst the wreckage, having been ignored for years, abandoned on the cold brown tile. The calm light of dawn seeped in through the classroom’s shattered back windows, illuminating the bits of dust which floated aimlessly through the old building. The scents of rotting, stale blood wafted up from behind a large desk, papers soaked and spattered in blood covering something that lay on the floor. 

The soft pitter-patter of footsteps echoed through the hallway, followed by the shaky amber light of a flashlight. A boy, no older than sixteen, dressed in a frayed aviator’s jacket and mismatched shoes stepped into the room, giving the door, which barely clung onto its hinges, a slight push as he entered. His dark green eyes flicked around the classroom like a lizard’s, carefully scanning the room for any signs of danger. A shaky hand reached down to pick up a small red and black book from the ground, shining a flashlight upon its dust-coated spine. The boy brushed off the dust, revealing the title. Fareinheight 451, It read. The book was carefully slipped into his leather satchel before the young man rose once more, his eyes now resting on the far desk, the once-white wall behind it stained with a spray of dried blood. 

Quiet as a mouse, the young man crept around and over a few upturned tables to approach the scene. Kneeling down before the pile of papers, he brushed a few off to the side to reveal an arm. The bloody, grayish-pale skinned hand still grasping a blue pen. The teenager put his hand over his mouth to stop himself from throwing up, the pungent scent of rotting flesh being all he could smell. Quickly, he covered the arm back up, gagging as he heaped the bloody papers back on. Book paper and ungraded essays crinkled under heavy footsteps, blowing other papers away as he rushed back into the hallway, shoulder-length dark hair streaming behind him. He breathed heavily, sweat beading at his forehead as his feet thudded against the hallway’s smooth tiles towards the main entrance. 

A laminated “See you soon!” poster hung from the back of the metal and glass door, along with a few other informational papers about office hours and school updates miraculously still clinging off of the glass. The boy pushed the door open quietly and snuck around the edge of the school towards a group of bushes. Another failure. He thought. No food. No clean water. Nothing. A coffee brown hand waved him over from the bushes, beckoning the young man to enter. Crawling through prickly branches, the boy whispered. “Hey Ace.” 


End file.
